Taipei Story House event with Teaparker and tea friends

For this special event marking the end of K. C. Chen's era at the head of the Taipei Story House, Teaparker received this picture of himself performing Chaozhou gongfu cha. It was taken at the Taipei Story House in 2010 when a TV crew shot the documentary Global Drinks, tea (for France 5 TV).

Nearby, you can also see pictures from over 50 tea events organized by Teaparker with the Taipei Story House over the years. I have many memories of teas and friends there...

The Taipei Story House was built in 1913 for Chen ZhaoJun, a Taipei tea merchant, as a place to rest and entertain his guests. On Sunday, Teaparker invited us to a trip back in time and gave us 5 teas from the 1920s to brew! 

 Evon started with a Fanzhuang Oolong, meaning it's an Oolong that was sold by a foreign tea merchant in Taipei. While the leaves were provided by Teaparker, all the equipment is her own. She's using a wonderful black obi (kimono belt) as chabu and a cultural revolution big bamboo teapot. Most beautiful are her replica of Yuan dynasty qinghua cups with elevated Chatuo!

 Next, Ms. Wu brews old Wuyi Yancha in her small Yixing zhuni teapot. Wuyi Yancha is the place of origin of Oolong and also one of the most difficult to master. 

 Beauty on a Chaxi can look so simple and easy, but it requires practice and a creative mind. 

 This event with 5 Chaxi is also an opportunity to see that we're not alone in preparing tea with style. Every day we are using similar setups to enjoy our tea.

 Here, Ms. Jian is going to brew a 1920s KeyiXing puerh. The brew's color was amazingly transparent and shiny!

 Then came my turn with the Chaxi I had parcticed of a day earlier.

I brewed a 1920s Sun Yishun Liu-An GuaPian. The leaves are tiny and it's a tea that used to be exported to South Asia. This Yellow Mountain tea (Anhui Province) used to be slightly oxidized. Its scent in the pewter tea caddy is splendid and powerful. It's intoxicating like old liquor or top grade incense! Teaparker recommended I only use few leaves, a slow pour and long brew. The result was surprisingly thick, clean and sweet. The aftertaste of a small cup lasted a very long time, with waves of warmth in the body.

I was particularly glad that I could share this special moment with Emily, a Penn State alumna and reader Miguel with his family!

Old tea and wares are passed from one generation to the next. It's nice to see how tea brings the family together and how a simple moment of happiness can be shared and passed to the next generation.

Above and on the left, Ms. Chen prepared a Baozhong that was sold by Chen ZhaoJun's company in the 1920s! It was interesting to see that Baozhong tea used to be rather flat and small back then.

She also made a beautiful purple color Chabu matching the colors of her early RoC Yixing teapot for this occasion.

All these tea still felt alive and brought lots of joy and astonishment to all the participants. It showed just how resilient top quality teas can be. It's not a quest for the oldest tea, but for exceptional flavors. And this Sunday, we were blown away! It was the highest concentration of great teas and Chaxis I have seen on a single afternoon.

May the Taipei Story House continue to connect tea lovers with Taiwan's rich tea culture!

500,000 visiteurs au Taipei Story House

Hier, le Taipei Story House a franchi les 500,000 visiteurs depuis l'ouverture de la Flora Expo en novembre dernier! Pour marquer l'événement, Teaparker et son groupe d'étudiants ont fait une démonstration de 3 Cha Xi devant l'ancienne bâtisse.

Le Taipei Story House est le seul monument historique de style Tudor de l'Expo. Son jardin resplendit actuellement de milliers de fleurs. L'intérieur a été rénové et doté de plus de 700 objets d'époque. On y retrouve l'insouciance et le raffinement du début du XXème siècle (avant la première guerre mondiale).

Son propriétaire, Chen Chao-Chun, a fait fortune en exportant du thé Baozhong parfumé aux fleurs vers l'Asie du Sud Est. Aussi, évidemment, Teaparker a sorti trois thés fleuris différents pour l'occasion!

L'un de ces thés a plus de 50 ans!

Pour le premier Cha Xi, la passionnée de thé et de design a eu l'idée d'utiliser un rectangle en plexiglass transparent au-dessus de son Cha Bu. Une pierre carrée utilisée pour graver un sceau chinois lui serre de reposoir pour le couvercle de sa théière. J'adore aussi son réceptacle à eaux usées en porcelaine qinghua calligraphiée durant la dynastie Qing.

Elle utilise une jarre en étain japonaise. Celle-ci permet de bien conserver la fraicheur de thés torréfiés. Or, si ce thé cinquantenaire est encore bon, c'est car il fut bien torréfié lorsqu'il fut fait!

Elle verse les feuilles dans la théière avec ses mains, faisant 'un' avec le thé.
Les feuilles sont mises en condition, préchauffées, par la chaleur des mains.

Pour le second Cha Xi, le thé fleuri au gardénia est âgé également. Une théière en zhuni d'Yixing conviendra bien pour garder toutes les fragrances du thé. La bouilloire en argent permet, elle, une température plus élevée.

Les coupes en porcelaine qinghua, reproduction de la dynastie Yuan, apportent leur élégance...

Teaparker commente chaque Cha Xi, présente thés et accessoires au public d'amateurs. Il pose des questions, et ceux qui répondent correctement gagnent une dégustation du thé infusé.


Malgré le temps un peu frais (14 degrés Celcius), l'ambiance est bon enfant. Je suis impressionné par la nombreuse foule qui défile autour de nous en ce mardi matin. C'est vrai que les vacances scolaires ont débuté en vue du Nouvel An Chinois, la semaine prochaine...

Après avoir dégusté ce thé dans une coupe Yuan, cette spectatrice est tellement heureuse qu'elle entonne la chanson 'Qinghua Ci' (porcelaine Qinghua) du chanteur pop Taiwanais Jay Chou.


Teaparker présente Evon, la dernière à nous préparer un thé.

C'est elle qui a réalisé ce Cha Bu. Son Oolong torréfié parfumé à l'orchidée n'a que 5 ans et peut être infusé en théière en argent.
En ce matin de janvier, les effluves du thé fleuri ont à nouveau bercé les visiteurs de la Taipei Story House. Y aurait-il un brin de nostalgie à l'idée d'un passé révolu? Ou bien est-ce une façon de réinventer le thé? Puiser de l'inspiration dans cette riche culture pour créer un nouveau moyen d'expression artistique polysensoriel...

Tea event at the Taipei Story House

It will take place this Sunday, February 8th, at 3 PM at the Taipei Story House (next to the Museum of Modern Art). Teaparker's Cha Ren Ya Xin's association will perform several Cha Xi for a special event. I will also participate and hope to take beautiful pictures on this special occasion. Our Chaxi will honor the retirement of the current head of the Story House.

Ce dimanche, 8 février, à 15h, je serai au Tapei Story House avec l'association Cha Ren Ya Xin de Teaparker. Nous aurons plusieurs Chaxi pour célébrer la retraite de la directrice actuelle, K. C. Chen. En 12 ans, elle a su donner une dimension culturelle à cette demeure historique d'un marchand de thé du début du 20ème siècle. Nous lui dirons merci et montrerons que nous continuons de s'inspirer de sa démarche: puiser de l'énergie et de l'inspiration dans l'ancien pour créer du bonheur dans le présent!

Tea Event at The Taipei Story House

When: Saturday December 2, 2006 in the afternoon (start is at 3 PM, but best is to arrive earlier for a good seat)
Where: Taipei Story House on Zhong Shan N. Road, next to the Fine Arts Museum.
Who: Teaparker and members of his Tea Association 'Cha Ren Ya Xin'
What: A presentation of 'the origins of red tea' and related tea tasting.
Note: there's a fee to access the historic site of the Taipei Story House, but there's no additional fee to attend the event.

Update: I will participate in the event. It would be fun if some of my Taipei readers would come.
Teaparker is talking about the event here and about red tea origin here (in Chinese).

Fall 2009 Taipei Story House Cha Xi: Enjoy Puerh

Last Sunday, we held our bimonthly tea party at the Taipei Story House. Teaparker made the presentation speech and 4 of his students brewed various puerhs.

The day was cloudy and cool. It was perfect to enjoy tea, but the room was too dark to make good pictures (and I had my hands busy brewing!) That's why I took these pictures of my setup again at home.

I chose this Cha Bu for its warm earth colors that go well with the autumn season and the wodui (fermented) puerh I brewed.

I display a Chrysanthemum for 2 reasons. First, it should symbolize the full moon, since the day before was the Moon Festival. We couldn't see the moon in the sky, because of the bad weather, but we could see it on the Cha Xi.

Second, chrysenthemum is often added to flavor cheap wodui puerh. But this one is made of high grade tea buds and very well processed. It's only a couple of years old, but it tastes so clean and sweet that it doesn't require any added flavor. We can combine the pleasure of tea and the beauty of the this flower. We don't need to mix them in the teapot.

I further underlined how good this puerh tasted by using a zhuni teapot.

The old and small qinghua cups look out of time, like the tea we had this Sunday at the Taipei Story House.

I have listed all the accessories I'm using on the invitation (left). It was Teaparker's idea to keep a written trace of our Cha Xi. Much of what we know about how tea was brewed in the past comes from similar lists and accounts of tea parties. The Japanese, especially, have left very detailed accounts.

A blog is, in this regard, a very modern way to keep a trace and share our tea with others. And it's also interesting how one's own technique evolved by comparing pictures of the setups over time.

Spring 2007 Tea event at Taipei Story House

When: Sunday April 1st, 2007 in the afternoon (start is at 3 PM, but best is to arrive earlier for a good seat)
Where: Taipei Story House on Zhong Shan N. Road, Sec 3, No. 181-1, next to the Fine Arts Museum.
Who: Teaparker and members of his Tea Association 'Cha Ren Ya Xin'
Subject: Tea and the Spring Season.
Note: there's a regular fee to access the historic site of the Taipei Story House, but there's no additional fee to attend the event.

I will try my best to be present at the event, but can't confirm yet.

Tea connections

Japanese style garden in Taipei (Tatung University)

Recent readers of my blog may be surprised to see me preparing Oolong at an event in the Tatung university in Taipei. This picturesque place is better known as a background for wedding pictures! And how do I get access to such an old landmark of Taipei to make tea?

Teaparker, the tea master with whom I learn about tea, is my connection to this event. As a consultant for the Taipei Story House, every month, he gives a speech about tea open to the public (it used to be easy to get in, but now you need to register 2 weeks in advance!) To make these monthly events more lively and self-explanatory, Teaparker always asks one or several of his students to perform a Chaxi. Once a week, he also gives a more formal tea class at the Taipei Story House.

Teaparker thoughtful before the event

Teaparker is a former journalist who has now written about 40 books on the subject of tea. I am fortunate that I attended the very first tea class he taught, 12 years ago! And I have continued to attend his classes every week ever since. The tea world is very large and there's so much to explore. Teaparker doesn't pretend to know everything about tea, but he continues to learn and is passionate about sharing the joys he finds in tea.

Thanks to his tea classes, I have also the chance to connect with other wonderful tea persons who have become great friends.

Tea can be somewhat a lonely experience if nobody around you appreciates it. In Taiwan, this is rarely the case, because so many people like the taste of good Oolong, even if they don't put as much effort as we do in their Chaxi.

Sharing many delicious cups with people who also love tea creates a common bond of happiness. I have found this experience so amazing that I even wanted to share it with other tea lovers overseas and started this blog 10 years ago. And thanks to this blog, I have connected with Baroque musicians, artists, potters, writers, doctors, web designers, university professors, poets, physicists, movie and wine makers...all very talented and very interesting people. Exchanging pleasure and happiness in a meaningful and refined way is so gratifying... (Thanks again, dear tea friends).

We live in a more and more connected world and it's not always easy to disconnect! Too many connections may also lead to lost time, so it's important to nurture the good and the right ones.

There is one more connection I wish to mention in the relationship with tea: oneself. Preparing tea is actually never lonely if you use this moment to connect to oneself. Be here now. Every detail has its importance when you prepare tea. This motivates you to focus on what you are doing. Tea opens a road to meditation.

There's a inner dialogue with oneself during tea. The drinker judges if the brewer has prepared the tea as one wished it to be brewed. So, you learn to know how you like your tea, what taste gives you most pleasure, what smell reminds of which memory... Learn to listen to your inner voice!

December Tea Party at the Taipei Story House

When: This Sunday December 7, 3 PM
Where: Taipei Story House, next to the fine Arts Museum on Chung Shan North Rd.
Subject: In winter mood, the story of Old Oolong.

Maybe I'll meet one of you there! Last month, I was in a tea ware shop in Yingge and hear a German gentleman speak English with the sales clerk. Being the only 2 foreigners and the only 2 customers in the shop, we said hello and started talking:
- What are you doing here? he asked me.
- I have a tea blog.
- Is it the Teamasters blog?
- Well, huh, yes! That's my blog!
This was quite a surprise to meet a blog reader! We ended up talking at least half an hour around several cups of fresh Oolong brewed by the store manager. This reader is a Qi Gung teacher who lives on Koh Samui, Thailand. It was very nice hearing his experience of Taiwan Oolong and how much his friends like it when they are in the relaxed mood of a Thai island.

Through this blog, I have met and kept so many tea friends! I'm very grateful. Thanks!

Ming Dynasty Cha Xi practice

On Sunday 1st of June, 3PM, Cha Ren Ya Xin will perform a Ming dynasty Cha Xi (tea party) at the Taipei Story House (next to the Fine Arts Museum). This time, the Cha Xi is supposed to take place indoors.

Here is my latest set-up that I have thought of for the occasion. Teaparker suggested we use a green Cha Bu (so I made this new one!). The main reason for green is that we will all brew loose green tea (as fits the current spring season). I liked this green cloth, because its dark roughness has a certain 'authentic' depth that should fit an ancient Chinese dynasty quite well.

Silver would be the best fit for green tea, but we thought that silver teapots are not very particular to Ming dynasty. Ming teapots used to be big and roundish in shape. And most were made of clay. Teaparker told us that duanni clay is the best match for green tea. I thought that a harder clay would brew the light fragrances better. So, I compared brewing my San Hsia Bi Luo Chun in the zisha Chun Si and in this 20 cl duanni Yi Li Zhu. And to my surprise, the result with the duanni was nicer. It was rounder and lost less fragrance than I had feared. That's why I decided to use this teapot, the biggest duanni teapot I have (so far).
We will use an old white plate to present the dry leaves. After they are inserted in the teapot, I'm thinking of bringing my second old tetsubin on the Cha Bu.

For this practice, I could use these wonderful handmade Korean tea cups (thanks again to the dear reader who gave them to me). They are really very special with their color variations. And they fit this Cha Xi very well. Unfortunately, I won't have enough for the Story House Event. So, I still need to find other cups until then...

There's another interesting Ming dynasty habit I learned from Teaparker. In those times, each participant would have his own teapot and make his own tea! If you want to make your own Ming dynasty event, this is tradition can help it make it more interactive. But for this Story House event, we will retain the usual format of one brewer and 5-6 drinkers for more convenience with the water (and teapots) preparation.

See also my previous attempt at making a Cha Xi with Ming dynasty inspiration (in French).

Thé de printemps au Taipei Story House

Mon ami russe Sergey (à gauche) a également fait des photos de notre après-midi au Taipei Story House avec Teaparker (centre). Il les a posté sur ce site russe de discussions consacrées aux thés d'Asie. Je vous les remontre ici pour plus de simplicité, surtout si vous ne lisez pas le russe!. Belle photo de Sergey qui symbolise bien le thème du jour: le thé au parfum de fleur du printemps.
Plus besoin de présenter la précieuse théière en argent, Phoenix et Dragon...
Teaparker devant une photo de Lung Jin dans une tasse Qinghua de la dynastie Yuan.
Vous pouvez m'y voir en pleine action. Mes traits sont tirés, car la théière en argent est particulièrement chaude! L'infusion suivante, j'ai pris un tissu supplémentaire pour ne pas me bruler.